


Invictus

by LadyAllana



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Just Hug Eachother Already, Like so much angst, Loki Needs a Hug, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Nebula Needs a Hug, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 15:52:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2553185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAllana/pseuds/LadyAllana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>''wonder, dread and war</i><br/><i>have lingered in that land</i><br/><i>where loss and love in turn</i><br/><i>have held the upper hand''</i><br/>Tony Stark finds an ex-assasin in his living room, Loki tries to act like a heartless bastard -except well, it doesn't work at all-, Nebula runs away from home, and yeah Thanos wants to destroy the Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invictus

**Author's Note:**

> This is me, waiting for Age of Ultron paciently. And I think I will stay sane as long as there isn't a Whedon moment in it. ( I'm a leaf in the-damn right you are, you are not dead!) 
> 
> So this is non-canon obviously and takes place after all the current movies.

_“Whether fate be foul or fair,_

_Why falter I or fear?_

_What should man do but dare?”_

_Sir Gawain and The Green Knight_

 

 

''No matter what anxieties you feel,

I'll always be by your side

Little by little I want to get stronger just for you.''

Thank You – FT Island

 

**1.**

 

To be honest, Tony has no qualms about the Winter Soldier's death toll, heck he is even ready to forgive and forget about the circumstances of his parents' death. He, unlike Tony who used to get off building mass destruction weapons, had no choice on the matter. Nor did he have a vendetta against Howard and Maria Stark. As far as he knows, all of the Howling Commando's were pretty close with his father and though the old man had worshipped the ground Rogers walked on, he also never had any words about the rest of them but praises.

 

No, it's that damn look in his eyes, not the terrified one he gets whenever he remembers about Steve or the defeated one he gets around Tony.It's the dead man walking, do stay away look Tony sees whenever he dares to look at the CCTV in the room he gave him.Tony has gradually learned to stop looking, he has learned that the guy who stays in his home is an actual human being with feeling and wants and needs.

 

Now that he has even started to join Tony on his late night inspiration hunts, Tony feels ashamed to look any more.

 

Twenty seven days.

 

Twenty seven days since he came home from his regular check-up to find the Winter Soldier in his living room. Twenty seven days since the guy confessed to the murders of thousands including the Starks. Twenty seven days since Pepper somehow ended up petting him to sleep. It seems like an eternity to him now.

 

Cap is somewhere in South America, searching him with the Bird Guy-who Tony really wants to meet because come on he can do so much better than Justin Hammer's old design. Natasha and Clint are in Montevideo, posing as a missionary couple, secretly cleaning out the Shield Ops there while even more secretly doing the same.

 

Twenty seven days since he actually wanted to keep this guys presence a secret and let him rest for a while.

 

Tony is used to being the billionaire in the billion dollar metal suit in everybody eyes. He is used to the fact that no one actually remembers that he is still the certified genius of this century.

 

No one takes the Iron Man seriously without the suit.

 

He has learned not to care since then. It's to his advantage that even the Shield forgets who he really is sometimes.

 

''No surfing Mr. Stark as I've told you a dozen times before. You are not even in Malibu any more.''

 

''What about snow boarding then?''

 

''Thank you, Doctor Richards. That will be all for now.''

 

Pepper sweeps into the hospital room in her high heels, with a Stark Mobile held between her ear and her shoulder not caring that Tony is naked save his boxers. Where his arc reactor used to rest, now there is a big ugly scar, which doctors say that will take at least two more surgeries to repair and Tony is so not going to lay down on that table again.

 

This red – now turning to pink - monstrosity worried him when he first woke up from his surgery four and a half months ago. He had though that Pepper might be disgusted with him, but God bless her she had put her hard on his scar – the way she put the reactor in the first time all those years ago- and told him that after years of sleeping on something that hard, this was actually a blessing. She had kissed his scar when they finally let Tony go home, like she had kissed the other scars that was left to him from Afghanistan million times before.

 

But right now, Pepper is in her CEO mode, still talking to a client in fluent French while tossing him his jeans and the old Black Sabbath t-shirt that doesn't light up in all the right places any more. Tony slowly dresses while watching her, this woman who followed him everywhere for the past ten years. This woman who has believed in him no matter what and put up with his shit no matter how much hurt he has caused her.

 

She takes the phone in her left hand to excuse her self and finish the call, and the blue stone shines on her finger under the cruel hospital lighting. Tony exhales a shaky breath and takes his own phone from the back pocket of her trousers.

 

''You ready?''

 

She asks with a smile and that kind voice she always uses around him when she isn't angry and knows he is vulnerable.

 

Tony just hugs her.

 

***

 

_5 Months Ago_

 

After spending six years as 'The Iron Man', Tony thinks, yes he is finally mature enough to admit it when he is scared. He has finally learned that a mask, whether it be a playboy millionaire or titanium, is never enough to hide what is inside from the people who truly know him, nor does it make all the fear or the pain disappear. Standing here, at the basement of his old home it is even more apparent.

 

After Malibu, he and Pepper had moved into the Avengers Tower permanently. First, it was the most convenient place for them to run the company from until the tower in Washington was completed. Second, Tony needed Bruce with him 24/7 until they found a cure for Extremis.

 

The repairs were already completed and though Rogers had refused to move out from his hole in Brooklyn, Natasha and Barton came in between their missions. They never stayed more than two days and never used the separate floors Tony gave them, so by the end of the third month -and their fourth visit- Tony had taken apart Natasha's floor and started over. Bruce had moved in, grudgingly admitting that yes, Tony had more to offer than Calcuta for the moment.

 

So after they were let out from the White House – without a medal mind you- Tony had put the thickest blanket he could find around Peppers shoulders and had taken the jet out to New York himself. Bruce and Barton, who had just returned from God knows where had met them in the airport and took them straight to the tower, before the paparazzi bombarded the place.

 

You see, it was a very difficult situation. Shield had no intention of letting the Extremis technology go to waste, but Tony also knew he needed to keep Pepper safe. So while the 'officials' had discussed the pros and cons of a self burning tech thingie, Tony and Bruce had put Pepper in a medically induced coma with Barton keeping watch over her constantly.

 

Tony had taken the control of the Stark Industries and he closed the company to the public for three months in which Pepper was in an out. And the two of them -Tony and Bruce that is- finally found a way to get rid of that 'poison' which it's creator claimed to be the next step of human evolution.

 

After that, Pepper had taken the company over again, they threw this big, golden charity ball for degenerative diseases and Tony announced to the public that he would leave the Iron Man behind.

 

It took them a while to find the right hospital and the right doctor but when they had finally scheduled the operation, Tony stormed into Peppers office in his jeans and worn down sneakers with a motorcycle helmet and without an excuse they took of to where it all began for him.

 

***

 

 

His father had built the mansion in the 60's for his mother and all through her pregnancy and his first years Maria had stayed there where the air was cleaner and where it was safer for them, while Howard had run the company from the city.

 

Yet without a father figure present, Tony still remembers his days, and later his summers, here as the best memories from his childhood spend with his mother and Mr. Jarvis who always had milk and cookies ready for him.

 

It is a big house and it is still cleaned regularly because even though Pepper had stopped being his assistant she still takes care of things like this. Still it is a cold house, it is empty and lonely and it is everything Tony didn't want in his life any more.

 

He and Pepper went through every room hand in hand until Pepper excused herself and told him that she would be making sandwiches for them to eat. Only then Tony went into the basement where his old stuff were being kept. He didn't went through the boxes slowly, nor did he look at everything. He was never one to do something without a reason, alcohol influence didn't count thank you very much, and while he didn't know in which box it would be, he still found the thing relatively easy.

 

It was a old thing you see, it was old and broken and grey..

 

It had lost it colour long ago, even before Tony had put it aside. His mother had given it to him on his sixth birthday, just before he was sent off to Switzerland because the States were no longer safe for him. She had given it to him before he went to bed, tucked it in his arms and confessed that this would be the only thing he could tell his secrets to from now on and only to this he would speak the way he wanted. Tony had hugged it and cried the whole night until he fell asleep in the early morning and he never let it go after that.

 

He still remembers that day in Zurich, the city he hates to go, in the school where the only language he was allowed to speak was French and the nanny only spoke in German, some boy had taken it and threw it to the wall. Tony had cried when he saw it's eye was gone, he had cried until he sneaked in to the nanny's room and stole some thread and a needle and stitched the button of his uniform in its place.

 

He hadn't let go of it until he was thirteen, back in New York, in another private school but at least close to his mother now, and even then he still kept it in his library next to his trophies. Now in his hands, it looks much smaller than it seemed back then and yet it is still enough to bring tears into his eyes. Looking at it closely, he can see the left arm of the thing has been damaged by moths and its cape isn't very clean either.

 

Slowly he takes it upstairs and to the garden where Pepper is waiting for him with a plate in her hands. He puts it on the blanket and sits next to Pepper, accepting a sandwich and eats it silently. Pepper doesn't comment on it while they eat but packs it in her bag as they leave.

 

Back at home she puts it on the bed stand on Tony's side and the Buckybear watches them until the alarm clock starts ringing at 5 in the morning.

 

For the first time since the Chitauri, Tony doesn't even wake up once during the night.

 

***

 

When the morning comes, Pepper wakes up and dresses in the most comfortable pair of pants she can find and wears one of Tony's favourite t-shirts before she wakes Tony and they wait for Barton – ''Hello Clint how are you today?'' ''Why is he Clint?'' - takes them to the hospital, where Bruce is already waiting.

 

Before he goes under, Tony takes Pepper's hands in his and makes the best sad puppy eyes imitation a human ever can.

 

''Marry me when this is all over Miss. Potts'' he says.

 

Pepper with tears in her eyes replies.

 

''Of course, Mr. Stark.''

 

Later, Natasha joins them and holds Pepper until the Doctor gives the all clear.

 

The first thing Tony sees when he wakes up three days later, is Pepper writing an email on her Starkpad. The second is Natasha's grim face. Pepper gets up from her spot and kisses his forehead with a teary smile before getting out to the corridor and leaving them alone.

 

Natasha takes her place and the Starkpad she left on the chair.

 

''Shield is gone.'' is the first thing she says.

 

An then, she opens all the holographic images at once, blinding him.

 

Hydra, Zola and the Winter Soldier.

 

Winter Solider, who is Hydra's deadliest assassin.

 

Winter Soldier who killed government officials and businessmen.

 

Winter Solder who is Bucky Barnes.

 

***

_And I still see your reflection_

_Inside of my eyes_

_That are looking for purpose_

_They're still looking for life_

_Broken- Lifehouse_

 

Natasha doesn't want Tony to see all these. She doesn't even know when he became Tony in her head and why she doesn't care about the urgency of the matter, she knows that this is not the right time. Fury has flown off to Europe and he is waiting for Clint there. Steve and Sam are after the Soldier and she is left here, alone to sort all of this mess out but she knows that she can not do it by herself. And she is selfish enough to drag Tony and Pepper with her.

 

When she first reaches the hospital in New York, she already knows the situation at hand from Clint. Clint who is angry with her because she left him here, Clint who knew that he was the best choice to protect Stark and his girlfriend/CEO for the moment but isn't happy at all that she had to face Hydra and the Winter Soldier without him.

 

To her best guess, Hydra has used the Soldier to get to every one of them, even Banner who can not be killed. But Natasha still remembers Budapest, the young girl who wasn't young at all when it came to play, who opened her legs for everyone when commanded and killed more men then she could count. And she remembers the bullet that grazed her arm, she remembers this agent who protected her instead of getting through with his mission and killing her. She remembers the bullet that had almost hit Clint in the artery, she remembers the blood gushing out of his neck, coating her fingers red.

 

Red, red, so much red.

 

So yes, Clint is angry with her and yet he lets her go because Pepper, who she doesn't really know that well but thinks that she would have been a great friend in an other life, is crawled in a chair and shaking. Natasha just nods at him and gives him the files she brought with her. She spends the next three days by Pepper's side, and both of them prepare for the storm as they wait for Tony (and the Captain) to wake up.

 

There one thing she knows. Tony needs to know the mess he is getting into as soon as possible.

 

There is another thing she knows. He can't tell a man in ICU that his parents accident was an assassination and the killer is currently at loose.

 

She also knows that she can never keep Tony Stark from finding out whatever he wants to know.

 

***

 

_When the tears come streaming down your face_

_When you lose something you can't replace_

_FixYou- Coldplay_

 

He sits there until the closing time.

 

Stares at the picture of a man who looks like him but doesn't feel like him at all. This man with a name that doesn't belong to him and a smile that he has never smiled and somehow he can't help but to cry. In the picture, next to his stands a guy proudly.

 

The guy in the ship.

 

The guy in the river.

 

The guy he saved.

 

Why did he save him?

 

_I knew him._

 

***

 

Galaxies away, Thor stares out of the window with Sif behind him holding her injured shoulder.  The room is empty save the three of them. His mother and brother are long gone and there has been no word from the Warriors Three for months.

 

''Thanos?''

 

''Yes.'' The Allfather says from his Throne.

 

Thor who is too busy being lost in his own thoughts doesn't realize the way he can't quite sit still. Thor doesn't see the shivering fingers turning blue under his robe and doesn't sense the fear in his words like Lady Sif does.

 

''I thought he would leave the realms alone for a while yet. It seems that I was mistaken. He is going after Midgard.''

 

 

_To Be Continued..._


End file.
